In their everyday lives, insects often have to cope with both rough and smooth as well as sticky surfaces. They achieve a firm grip through special hooks or tiny hairs on their feet. While these different requirements are not a problem for many insects, technical applications are less flexible. They are usually specifically developed for a particular application—such as summer or winter tires, for example—and are not able to adapt to different surfaces. Inspired by the special structure of grasshopper’s feet, an interdisciplinary research team at Kiel University (CAU) has now developed an artificial frictional system that works on a wide variety of surfaces. Their combination of a soft silicone membrane, filled with fine-grained granulate, adapts itself to almost any surface and creates a firm grip under slight pressure. The simple production method also enables industrial applications, as reported by the research team in the current issue of the scientific journal Advanced Materials Interfaces.
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Source: Phys.org